The spread offense also gives an offense more time to identify blitzer's coming off the perimeter or outside of a defense, as the longer surface area that the defender needs to travel makes it harder to get to the quarterback and helps the quarterback in identifying the pre-snap blitz read.

At the youth, high school, and college levels, the quarterback in a spread offense is predominately in the shot-gun at the snap of the ball. The shot gun allows the quarterback to gain more depth in the backfield, setting up not only better passing lanes to throw, but also a large variety of quarterback run plays with options, making the quarterback a dual threat to the defense (pass and run threat).

Here's a look at some basic player positions in the spread offense:

It is estimated that at the high school level in the United States that over 70% of offenses run some variety of the spread offense.

At the college level, in 2010 we saw the two championship games at the BCS Division 1 level (Auburn and Oregon) and the FBS Division 1 level (Eastern Washington and Delaware) both run high paced, explosive spread offenses.

In future newsletters, we will dive deeper into the spread offense.

About the author: Mark Colyer is the President and Founder of SpreadOffense.com, an online portal for coaches, parents, and players seeking information on running and defending the spread offense in football at all levels. Visit us online at: www.SpreadOffense.com